Wanda's Book Reviewshttp://booklikes.com/photo/crop/50/50/upload/avatar/2/5/2526ae31d7686bdf9a73380b7f5c6a00.jpgwandapedersen39http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com2019-09-15T11:08:40+01:00http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com/rssreview: Sword and Pen / Rachel Caine2019-09-15T00:03:00+01:002019-09-15T00:03:00+01:00http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com/post/1951845/sword-and-pen-rachel-cainewandapedersen39http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com
With the future of the Great Library in doubt, the unforgettable characters from Ink and Bone must decide if it's worth saving in this thrilling adventure in the New York Times bestselling series.

The corrupt leadership of the Great Library has fallen. But with the Archivist plotting his return to power, and the Library under siege from outside empires and kingdoms, its future is uncertain. Jess Brightwell and his friends must come together as never before, to forge a new future for the Great Library . . . or see everything it stood for crumble.

Fabulous! This is going out with a bang, rather than a whimper! I am not sure what it says about me that I adore dark fantasy, with plenty of battles, plots, backstabby treacherousness, and ingenious weapons. And don’t forget the Great Library! Having worked my whole career in libraries, they are near and dear to my heart.

This volume reduced me to emotional tatters by its end. I shed plenty of tears and just sat staring into space for a while after I finished it. What a ride!

Ms. Caine, you have certainly figured out how to make me into a happy reader. Between this series, the Stillhouse Lake series and the Honors series, I am overwhelmed with good choices for future reading. Long may you write!

Amber Fang enjoys life's simple pleasures - a good book, a glass of wine and, of course, a great meal.Raised to eat ethically, Amber dines only on delicious, cold-blooded killers. But being sure they're actually killers takes time... research... patience.It's a good thing Amber's a librarian. Her extraordinary skills help her hunt down her prey, seek out other vampires, and stay on the trail of her mother, missing now for two years. One day she stalks a rather tasty-looking murderer and things get messy. Very messy. Amber, the hunter, becomes the hunted.And then, from out of nowhere, the perfect job offer: Assassin. She'd be paid to eat the world's worst butchers. How ideal.Until it isn't.

I read this book to fill the Vampires square of my 2019 Halloween Bingo Card.

This is a cute and irreverent frolic through the vampire mythos. Amber Fang was a sheltered young vampire, raised by a mother who believed in ethical eating--only remorseless killers allowed. Good thing that Amber was well into her Library Science degree and has mad researching skills.

Amber would obviously like to believe that she is at the top of the food chain. She reminds me of all the anthropological literature that makes the claim that humans are the world’s apex predator, when really if you turned most of us out into the wild, we would quickly expire from hunger & exposure!

Bonus points for the Icelandic librarian who moonlights as a sniper! My dream combination, violent little fantasist than I am.

I bought this book because I really wanted to support its author, Arthur Slade. Mr. Slade came to a book conference that I regularly attend and I was struck by what a decent guy he is. I think he gave this vampire tale a very playful twist and I’ll see if I can find his other two Amber Fang books.

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review: They Do It With Mirrors / Agatha Christie2019-09-14T23:20:00+01:002019-09-14T23:20:00+01:00http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com/post/1951839/they-do-it-with-mirrors-agatha-christiewandapedersen39http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com
A man is shot at in a juvenile reform home – but someone else dies…

Miss Marple senses danger when she visits a friend living in a Victorian mansion which doubles as a rehabilitation centre for delinquents. Her fears are confirmed when a youth fires a revolver at the administrator, Lewis Serrocold. Neither is injured. But a mysterious visitor, Mr Gilbrandsen, is less fortunate – shot dead simultaneously in another part of the building.

I read this book to fill the Locked Room Mystery square of my 2019 Halloween Bingo Card.

Jane Marple is, as the detective in this novel says, a sharp old bird. I do love that she took her binoculars with her and was willing to pursue Siskins with intensity in order to eavesdrop effectively! She very much makes use of the fact that elderly women seem to be invisible to vast portions of the population. Similarly, her friend Carrie Louise is much more observant than her surrounding family gives her credit for (and certainly more than her husband believes). Older women can get away with all kinds of things that people don’t think us capable of.

I was also interested to see the way that our attitude towards young offenders really hasn’t changed all that much since 1952 when this book was originally published. A problem that we’re still struggling with and haven’t found any easy answers.

I did feel that the end was a bit weaker than many of the Christie books that I have read up until now--the perpetrator got to escape prosecution, although their end was arguably worse than what the courts would have assigned.

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review: Slayer / Kiersten White 2019-09-14T22:54:00+01:002019-09-14T22:54:00+01:00http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com/post/1951837/slayer-kiersten-whitewandapedersen39http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com
Nina and her twin sister, Artemis, are far from normal. It’s hard to be when you grow up at the Watcher’s Academy, which is a bit different from your average boarding school. Here teens are trained as guides for Slayers—girls gifted with supernatural strength to fight the forces of darkness. But while Nina’s mother is a prominent member of the Watcher’s Council, Nina has never embraced the violent Watcher lifestyle. Instead she follows her instincts to heal, carving out a place for herself as the school medic.

Until the day Nina’s life changes forever.

Thanks to Buffy, the famous (and infamous) Slayer that Nina’s father died protecting, Nina is not only the newest Chosen One—she’s the last Slayer, ever. Period.

I read this book to fill the New Release square of my 2019 Halloween Bingo Card.

If you were ever a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, this is the book for you. And just like the Buffy television series, this book is about so much more than young women slaying vampires. This is a book about grief, about the misunderstandings that happen between parent and child as well as between siblings, about the agony of being adolescent and not feeling like you fit in.

But, once again just like the TV series, there is plenty of action complete with plot twists and turns to keep you reading along happily. I’m maybe not quite as enamoured of this series as I was of White’s The Conqueror’s Saga, but I certainly wouldn’t be opposed to reading the next book, Chosen, when it comes out next year. I’ll be interested to see how Nina chooses to make her status as Chosen work into a life that she has actually chosen for herself.

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review: Sweep of the Blade / Ilona Andrews 2019-09-12T00:14:00+01:002019-09-12T00:14:00+01:00http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com/post/1950402/sweep-of-the-blade-ilona-andrewswandapedersen39http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com
Maud Demille was a daughter of Innkeepers. She knew that a simple life wasn't in the cards, but she never anticipated what Fate would throw at her.

Once a wife to a powerful vampire knight, Maud and her daughter, Helen, had been exiled for the sins of her husband to the desolate planet of Karhari. Karhari killed her husband, and Maud had spent a year and a half avenging his debts. But now all the debts are paid. Rescued by her sister Dina, Maud had swore off all things vampire. Except she met Arland, the Marshal of House Krahr. One thing led to another and he asked for her hand in marriage. She declined.

Try as she might, she can't just walk away from Arland. It doesn't help that being human is a lot harder for Maud than being a vampire.

To sort it all out, she accepts his invitation to visit his home planet. House Krahr is a powerful vampire House, and Maud knows that a woman who turned down the proposal from its most beloved son wouldn't get a warm reception. But Maud Demille never shied from a fight and House Krahr may soon discover that there is more to this human woman than they ever thought possible.

A little treat that I purchased for myself, the paper version of the latest Innkeeper book. And of course, I couldn’t resist giving it another spin. I’ve read the first 3 books multiple times and now Sweep of the Blade will join that re-reading queue.

This is the polished version--previously I had enjoyed the weekly installments online--and I was pleasantly surprised at the couple of additions that made the story work so well. I’m also intrigued by the ending, which seems to indicate that there are more Innkeeper Chronicles to come. Bring them on!

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review: Sapphire Flames / Ilona Andrews 2019-09-11T23:56:00+01:002019-09-11T23:56:00+01:00http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com/post/1950400/sapphire-flames-ilona-andrewswandapedersen39http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com
In a world where magic is the key to power and wealth, Catalina Baylor is a Prime, the highest rank of magic user, and the Head of her House. Catalina has always been afraid to use her unique powers, but when her friend’s mother and sister are murdered, Catalina risks her reputation and safety to unravel the mystery.

But behind the scenes powerful forces are at work, and one of them is Alessandro Sagredo, the Italian Prime who was once Catalina’s teenage crush. Dangerous and unpredictable, Alessandro’s true motives are unclear, but he’s drawn to Catalina like a moth to a flame.

To help her friend, Catalina must test the limits of her extraordinary powers, but doing so may cost her both her House–and her heart.

What a pleasure it was to finally stick my nose in this book and ignore the world while I enjoyed it! For some reason that I can’t quite pinpoint, I adore this series and I have read and re-read the first 3 books and the novella upteen times and I know without a doubt that I will read them again.

In fact, I picked this book up yesterday and proceeded to read it twice. And I had to go back and enjoy parts of it again this morning. So I guess I have already read it two and a half times. Just like with the first three books, I’m finding it difficult to move on to other reading, preferring to linger with this one. I waited so long for it and it’s already done.

I know that we have switched narrators (from Nevada to Catalina), but really the two women sound very, very similar on the page. Catalina has different talents to take into account, but readers will barely feel the transition, they are so much alike. However, since I like the voice that House Andrews is using for these sisters, I am certainly okay with that.

I really like Catalina’s obsession with bladed weapons and her ability to channel Grandmother Victoria Tremaine. At the end of the novella, Rogan’s mother had offered to tutor her and that instruction has definitely paid off. Other developments that I am enamoured of: Bern’s attentiveness to their client, Runa--could this be the start of something? And I am unholy excited about Penelope Baylor and Sgt. Heart. This development is excellent. Romance isn’t just for the young folks. Also awesome? Linus Duncan, Hephaestus Prime. Building weaponry out of knives and forks, what a skill. Plus, knowing what we know about him from the first 3 books, there is great tension about his intentions towards House Baylor. Squee!

The Andrews’ have set Catalina up with some problems to be solved over the course of the next couple of books. Now the hard part begins--waiting for the next Catalina book to be published. Already, I’m champing at the bit for the next installment and it won’t be out until sometime in 2020. I don’t suppose that we could be lucky enough that they would follow up with an Arabella series? One thing is for sure, I will be very sad when this writing team stops producing books in this particular fantasy world.

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review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows / J.K. Rowling 2019-09-11T23:14:00+01:002019-09-11T23:14:00+01:00http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com/post/1950399/harry-potter-and-the-deathly-hallows-j-k-rowlingwandapedersen39http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com
Harry Potter is leaving Privet Drive for the last time. But as he climbs into the sidecar of Hagrid’s motorbike and they take to the skies, he knows Lord Voldemort and the Death Eaters will not be far behind.

The protective charm that has kept him safe until now is broken. But the Dark Lord is breathing fear into everything he loves. And he knows he can’t keep hiding.

To stop Voldemort, Harry knows he must find the remaining Horcruxes and destroy them.

He will have to face his enemy in one final battle.

I read this book to fill the Dark Academia square of my 2019 Halloween Bingo Card.

Well, it has taken me six years, but I have finally finished the Harry Potter series. I think I liked this last book best of all of them, as Harry was more focused on the well-being of others and less caught up in how hard-done-by he was. I also found that Ron’s temporary removal from the action was quite realistic--who hasn’t squabbled with a friend when tired/hungry/cold/wet?

Rowling is good at keeping the action moving and upping the ante. She doesn’t shrink from treating her characters harshly either--like in any war, there will be casualties. Wikipedia claims that she channeled the grief over her mother’s death into some of the moving scenes in the Potter books and I would like to believe that is true.

I came to this series much too late in life to be as consumed with it as some of my friends, but I can certainly understand the appeal. I’m glad to have read it (and to finally be finished), but I rather doubt that I’ll be re-reading it in the future. There are too many new books that capture my attention and favourites to be revisited.

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review: Stillhouse Lake / Rachel Caine2019-09-08T23:29:00+01:002019-09-08T23:29:00+01:00http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com/post/1948816/stillhouse-lake-rachel-cainewandapedersen39http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com
Gina Royal is the definition of average—a shy Midwestern housewife with a happy marriage and two adorable children. But when a car accident reveals her husband’s secret life as a serial killer, she must remake herself as Gwen Proctor—the ultimate warrior mom.

With her ex now in prison, Gwen has finally found refuge in a new home on remote Stillhouse Lake. Though still the target of stalkers and Internet trolls who think she had something to do with her husband’s crimes, Gwen dares to think her kids can finally grow up in peace.

But just when she’s starting to feel at ease in her new identity, a body turns up in the lake—and threatening letters start arriving from an all-too-familiar address. Gwen Proctor must keep friends close and enemies at bay to avoid being exposed—or watch her kids fall victim to a killer who takes pleasure in tormenting her. One thing is certain: she’s learned how to fight evil. And she’ll never stop.

I read this book to fill the Free square of my 2019 Halloween Bingo Card.

What a nail-biter of a book! It’s a fabulous psychological thriller that grabbed me by the throat from the very first pages and didn’t let me go until the very end. Rachel Caine has certainly got my number, and I am really enjoying her most recent work (The Great Library series and The Honors) and now the Stillhouse Lake series. I’ve been looking for an excuse to read this book for some time and I’m so glad I chose it as a Bingo selection.

Having just recently read A Serial Killer's Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming, I already had an interest in what happens to the family of a serial killer. I think that Caine wrote this very realistically. Women in relationships with controlling men spend a lot of time trying not to draw the wrath of their spouses down on themselves. They try to be perfect wives, to maintain perfect households, to do whatever their spouse requests of them. My sister spent time with a controller and I worried for her safety every damn day. That, in and of itself, is terrifying. But when a killer’s crimes are discovered, the public rarely believes that the wife knew nothing. Like Gwen in this book, these women come to believe the same thing--that they should somehow have ignored their husbands’ conditioning and seen what was weird. Readers who harbour these beliefs should read the above mentioned memoir--that author tackles the issue from the unsuspecting family’s perspective. They are abused too and are just trying to survive.

The other highly realistic part of the book was the internet hate and the doxing. As Gwen/Gina finds out, it’s difficult to keep running and hiding. There’s no protection program for families of these criminals. With the need to keep ahead of trouble, she and her two children have been uprooting themselves regularly and changing everything. The kids kind of understand, but not totally, as Gwen has been hiding the worst of the internet hatred and the twisted letters from their father. As a result, both of them are acting out and Gwen completely gets it, but she doesn’t want to be publicly identified, injured or killed.

Is it possible to just quit running? Can they finally start over, make friends and build relationships? Or will the creepy ex-husband manage to ruin their lives yet again? Will the police help them or do they still believe that Gwen was involved in her husband’s crimes somehow? It’s a powerful mix of emotional subject matter and I can hardly wait to get my hands on the next volume.

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review: Angels' Blood / Nalini Singh2019-09-08T23:07:00+01:002019-09-08T23:07:00+01:00http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com/post/1948813/angels-blood-nalini-singhwandapedersen39http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com
Vampire hunter Elena Deveraux knows she’s the best—but she doesn’t know if she’s good enough for this job. Hired by the dangerously beautiful Archangel Raphael, a being so lethal that no mortal wants his attention, only one thing is clear—failure is not an option…even if the task is impossible.

Because this time, it’s not a wayward vamp she has to track. It’s an archangel gone bad.

The job will put Elena in the midst of a killing spree like no other…and pull her to the razor’s edge of passion. Even if the hunt doesn’t destroy her, succumbing to Raphael’s seductive touch just may. For when archangels play, mortals break…

I read this book to fill the Diverse Voices square of my 2019 Halloween Bingo Card.

This was fascinating in that Singh’s world varies so wildly from what I would have expected of angels. Lots of different cultures believe in them, but I come from an evangelical Christian background and let me tell you, the folks that I went to church with back in the day would have been quite shocked at these angels! Angels who casually drop the F-bomb in their conversation and make sexual demands of mortals. Not to mention that they are the source of vampires, something which the evangelicals that I know would likely consider to be heresy!

It’s refreshing to read something that takes an entirely new look at something which I thought I knew about. Just like her Psy/Changeling books, the main point of this book seemed to be getting Elena into a hot, romantic relationship. In this case, Elena is a Guild Hunter, who has a natural aptitude for rounding up errant vampires. The vampires are created by the angels and have signed contracts for a certain term of service in return for the near-immortality. If they skip out early on those contracts, people like Elena track them down.

Of course, Elena is fabulous at what she does and she draws the attention of the ultra-hot archangel, Raphael. This is both good and bad, especially since Elena can’t seem to keep her opinions to herself. Fortunately for her, Raphael needs her assistance enough to put up with her lip.

I should reiterate at this point that I am not a huge fan of the romance genre. I like it when romance is included in strong mystery series (Deanna Raybourn) or in a fascinating fantasy world (Ilona Andrews), but Singh’s fantasy worlds just don’t speak very strongly to me. I like her stuff, but her plots are overly concerned with getting the heroine into bed with someone, not on her solving a crime, with bedroom time as a pleasant side dish. I persist in thinking of her work as more appropriate to the straight-up romance reader and less for the fantasy enthusiast.

Having said all of the above, I can see myself continuing on with this series, although not in the driven way that I read series like Hidden Legacy by Ilona Andrews or Mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs

The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity—and humanity from them.

Enter Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she'd rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and is spending a year in Manhattan while she pursues her career in professional ballroom dance. Sounds pretty simple, right?

It would be, if it weren't for the talking mice, the telepathic mathematicians, the asbestos supermodels, and the trained monster-hunter sent by the Price family's old enemies, the Covenant of St. George. When a Price girl meets a Covenant boy, high stakes, high heels, and a lot of collateral damage are almost guaranteed.

To complicate matters further, local cryptids are disappearing, strange lizard-men are appearing in the sewers, and someone's spreading rumors about a dragon sleeping underneath the city...

I read this book to fill the Cryptozoologist square of my 2019 Halloween Bingo Card.

Hail! Cake and cheese for all sapient rodents!

I still love this silly little series and the Aeslin mice. Verity Price may not be the world’s sharpest detective and Domenic De Luca may not be the most desireable romantic partner for her, but the mice fix everything with their charming presence throughout the book.

My memory is obviously not what it used to be, because I had completely forgotten the book’s opening, in which the mice feature prominently. Somehow, I didn’t think they appeared until Verity’s adventures in the Big Apple. I also had forgotten the significance of cake and cheese even in this very first book. Once again, I thought that the emphasis on these two foodstuffs came in later books. They were probably overshadowed in my memory by the whole take-out chicken scene! Showing that it does pay to re-read your favourites.

I still enjoy this series, featuring a manic family of ardent cryptozoologists and their crazy adventures, featuring any mythical beastie that you can think of and some which the author must have made up (like the Aeslin mice). I love the snark, the cute, and the smart. Each book is a lovely little vacation from reality.

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review: The Real Lolita / Sarah Weinman2019-09-05T23:17:00+01:002019-09-05T23:17:00+01:00http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com/post/1947721/the-real-lolita-sarah-weinmanwandapedersen39http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com
Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita is one of the most beloved and notorious novels of all time. And yet very few of its readers know that the subject of the novel was inspired by a real-life case: the 1948 abduction of eleven-year-old Sally Horner.

Weaving together suspenseful crime narrative, cultural and social history, and literary investigation, The Real Lolita tells Sally Horner’s full story for the very first time. Drawing upon extensive investigations, legal documents, public records, and interviews with remaining relatives, Sarah Weinman uncovers how much Nabokov knew of the Sally Horner case and the efforts he took to disguise that knowledge during the process of writing and publishing Lolita.

Sally Horner’s story echoes the stories of countless girls and women who never had the chance to speak for themselves. By diving deeper in the publication history of Lolita and restoring Sally to her rightful place in the lore of the novel’s creation, The Real Lolita casts a new light on the dark inspiration for a modern classic.

I read this book to fill the Truly Terrifying square of my 2019 Halloween Bingo Card.

I heard the author of The Real Lolita interviewed on the radio and was immediately intrigued. I’ve read true crime. I’ve read biography and books seeking to trace an author’s process. But this is the first book I’ve read that really combines the two and does so effectively.

When I think about Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita, I think about a work of fiction. But where did Nabokov get his idea from? It turns out that this true crime story may have provided the final details and framework for this recognized classic of fiction. Weinman has spent time in the author’s archives and has been able to connect the dots in a most convincing way.

But the author doesn’t forget the real girl--Sally Horner--and her awful predicament. Her separation from her family by an unscrupulous man and his sexual abuse of this extremely young girl. I was struck by how differently we look at society and children now--it wouldn’t be likely nowadays that a mother would send her daughter off with a person she didn’t know. It was a more trusting age, trusting that people had good intentions towards others. And yet, even in our more suspicious times, young girls still get kidnapped. Witness first person accounts like Elizabeth Smart’s My Story and non-fiction like Captive: One House, Three Women and Ten Years in Hell by Allan Hall. Indeed, the author read some of these accounts to assess what Sally’s life with her abductor might have been like.

It seems that Nabokov was interested in this theme long before the Sally Horner disappearance, but her situation seems to have resonated with him somehow. What he did was fictionalize the whole experience from Humbert Humbert’s perspective and give us an amazingly literate look at the criminal’s point of view. His wife’s notes, however, indicate that he wanted the audience to recognize the plight of Lolita in the fraudulent worldview of Humbert.

I haven’t yet read Lolita and I wondered whether I actually would, but this book makes me think that I must give it a try. Thank you, Ms. Weinman, for giving me a reason for attempting what is acknowledged to be a great novel.

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review: The ABC Murders / Agatha Christie2019-09-05T22:44:00+01:002019-09-05T22:44:00+01:00http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com/post/1947713/the-abc-murders-agatha-christiewandapedersen39http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com
When Alice Asher is murdered in Andover, Hercule Poirot is already on to the clues. Alphabetically speaking, it's one down, twenty-five to go.

There's a serial killer on the loose. His macabre calling card is to leave the ABC Railway guide beside each victim's body. But if A is for Alice Asher, bludgeoned to death in Andover; and B is for Betty Bernard, strangled with her belt on the beach at Bexhill; then who will Victim C be?

I read this book to fill the 13 square of my 2019 Halloween Bingo Card.

I chose this Christie novel, the thirteenth Hercule Poirot, for this Bingo square and I was not disappointed. It was an entertaining novel and I enjoyed Poirot’s deft solution.

Two things I noticed: first, after a summer of reading Sherlock Holmes, I couldn’t help but realize what a Watson-like role is played by Hastings in this novel. Poirot actually refers to Holmes a couple of times, as when he is gently rebuking Hastings at one point:

”Yes, the clue--it is always the clue that attracts you. Alas that he did not smoke the cigarette and leave the ash, and then step in it with a shore that has nails of a curious pattern.”

Secondly, I was struck by the number of times that a novel from 1936 states as given some of the guidelines set down by the FBI’s Behavioural Science Unit:

”He acts as the writer of the letter would act--goes at once to the police--pushes himself to the fore--enjoys his position.”

Someone at some point also says, “If you make it public, you’re playing ABC’s game.” I hadn’t realized how much received wisdom was codified by the FBI.

I always enjoy Dame Agatha--even the books that aren’t her greatest always give me something interesting to think about. This one was fun.

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review: A Fool and His Honey / Charlaine Harris2019-09-05T22:27:00+01:002019-09-05T22:27:00+01:00http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com/post/1947711/a-fool-and-his-honey-charlaine-harriswandapedersen39http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com
When Aurora Teagarden's delivery man goes crazy in her backyard, Aurora finds herself investigating a series of increasingly mysterious events that culminates in an ax murder...

I read this book to fill the Cozy Mystery square of my 2019 Halloween Bingo Card.

I’ve been slowly but surely working my way through this Charlaine Harris cozy mystery series over the last several years. This is the sixth installment in the series and in my opinion it is the best so far.

I’m not the biggest fan of cozies. For me, they have too much emphasis on things like what the heroine is cooking for supper or everybody’s showering schedules. Spare me those details! I like a bit less domesticity and a bit more dastardly murder. However, Harris ends this one with a bang and that elevates it for me. Usually I can wait many months before picking up the next book, but this one makes me want to pick up Last Scene Alive right away!

A great beginning to this year’s Halloween Bingo!

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text: The Eyeball Saga2019-09-05T20:59:00+01:002019-09-05T20:59:00+01:00http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com/post/1947690/the-eyeball-sagawandapedersen39http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com
So I had a big vision scare over the weekend. There's a strong history in my family of retinal tears and detachments--sometimes it's difficult not to get a bit paranoid. But I've been advised repeatedly of the symptoms and told to get to a doctor if they happen.

This past weekend was the long Labour Day weekend. While grocery shopping on Saturday, I had some cobwebby stuff show up in the upper right visual field of my right eye. By the time I got home, I had some new "twigs and tadpoles" happening in that upper right visual field, but things seemed stable. I decided to wait it out and see my optometrist on the Tuesday.

Things changed Monday morning, when I started to experience what I can only call "lightning bombs" in my right eye. Now, I've had petite little zigzags of light many times over the years. They worry me. But these were different. It was like the whole eyeball was lighting up on the inside, like a lightning strike. I brushed my hair, brushed my teeth, threw on some clothes, and called for a taxi. I went directly to the hospital that I knew was the best for eye problems and checked myself in at Emergency.

Of course, since it was a holiday, the Emerg was well populated. I told my story to the admitting nurse, to the triage nurse, to a tech, then to a doctor. While waiting, I heard one of the nurses tell another patient that it was an "Eyeball Day." Lots of people with eye problems and there's only one room fitted to assess these things. I sighed and resigned myself to a long wait.

Thankfully, I had taken my tablet, as the hospital blocks cell phones once you're inside. But they do provide wifi, so I was able to get on Facebook and communicate with my cousin. One sister (the one with the psycho ex-husband) refuses to join Facebook and the other has joined by never looks at it, so I asked my cousin to let them know what was going on. My youngest sister, who lives 1.5 hours away, immediately jumped in her car and insisted on coming to see what was happening. She arrived just after I had finally seen a doctor. (And I must say that I felt better when the doctor told me that I was the first "real" emergency eye that she had seen all day!)

So, my sister got me to the hospital's eye clinic, handed me an apple, then went to buy coffee for both of us, bless her. I hadn't thought I wanted her there until she arrived, when I was overjoyed to have her company (not to mention coffee). As she said, if you arrive at Emerg with a coffee in your hand, they may not take you all that seriously.

Finally, I saw the resident and the ophthalmologist. Pupils dilated, lots of bright lights shone in my eyes. Thankfully, the retina was undamaged. The gel inside the eye (that's vitreous humor if you're interested) had shifted. The movement of it rubbing on the retina was what was causing the visual lightning effects. The resulting shift in gel caused little bits to fold or break off, creating the "floaters" that are now annoying me. No surgery necessary, but I do have a follow up appointment with my own retinal specialist in early October (they recommended 4-6 weeks).

Needless to say, it was a scary weekend and I now have these annoying "objects" in the visual field of my right eye. However, I have had a large floater in my left eye, caused by a blow to the head back in 2010. It was so big & annoying that I gave it a nickname--The Seaweed. Here I am, nine years later, and I can't see The Seaweed anymore. That's a long time to wait, but I have hope that this situation will also correct itself given time.

My sister & I went out for dinner after all that excitement. After having only an apple & a cup of coffee all day, it was all I could do to refrain from eating like a cavewoman!

Thank goodness for sisters!

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review: Let the Right One In / John Ajvide Lindqvist2019-08-31T22:22:00+01:002019-08-31T22:22:00+01:00http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com/post/1944840/let-the-right-one-in-john-ajvide-lindqvistwandapedersen39http://wandapedersen39.booklikes.com
It is autumn 1981 when the inconceivable comes to Blackeberg, a suburb in Sweden. The body of a teenage boy is found, emptied of blood, the murder rumored to be part of a ritual killing. Twelve-year-old Oskar is personally hoping that revenge has come at long last---revenge for the bullying he endures at school, day after day.

But the murder is not the most important thing on his mind. A new girl has moved in next door---a girl who has never seen a Rubik's Cube before, but who can solve it at once. There is something wrong with her, though, something odd. And she only comes out at night.

Do you despise vampire stories? Do you find the living dead to be depicted as too beautiful, too powerful, too rich, too sexy altogether? Then this, my friend, is the vampire story for you!

Yes, Anne Rice had the child-vampire Claudia, but Lindqvist shows us a more realistic existence for a tween vampire. Struggling to find enough sustenance, making deals with unscrupulous humans in order to procure a meal, needing adult help to acquire & pay for shelter. On the one hand, Sweden would be a good choice of location, at least during the winter. Long nights, short days. But the summertime would be a misery of sunshine, lasting until well after midnight and beginning again shortly after the sun finally sets.

If you’ve read Scandinavian mysteries, you are already familiar with the mood of this book: dark, bleak, cold, with a clear, unromantic view of life. Scandinavian detectives are most often divorced, at odds with any children they may have, often drinking more alcohol than they should be, overworking in order to avoid their problems. Lindqvist brings a similar population to this book: a bullied tween boy who is fixated on murder stories, the bullies who are an unhappy and neglected part of a broken home, a group of older alcoholic men who merely exist from day to day, a grocery store clerk who cares about one of these men in a hopeless kind of way, a boy who is unhappy about his father’s death and now with his mother’s choice of boyfriend, and a pedophile who has taken in a tween vampire in an uneasy, unequal relationship. There is plenty of alcohol abuse, existential angst, cold weather, snow, darkness, and despair. Not the usual surroundings for the Lords of the Night!

And you know what? It works. Really well. Lindqvist takes the vampire tale back to its roots, back to being revolting corpses, with an extra dose of bleakness and cold. There’s absolutely nothing sexy about vampirism here--but a bracing dose of what their existence would actually be like. You know, if they actually existed.

An excellent book to prepare myself for the plunge into this year’s Halloween Bingo on Booklikes.